Talk about a turnaround. Eight years ago, when eighth-graders at Port Chester Middle School took the state's first English language arts and math assessments, less than one-third scored a 3 or 4 to meet the state standards. The numbers were much worse for students living in poverty and students of color.

In the last four years, because of a strong school principal/teacher partnership, those figures have more than doubled - making this high-need district's scores well above the countywide average of its wealthy Westchester neighbors. On the most recent statewide math tests, 90 percent of the eighth-graders scored proficiently (level 3 or 4.)

The district's dramatic success is more remarkable when you consider about 65 percent of Port Chester's students qualify for free and reduced-price meals and about the same percentage of students are Latino.

Indeed, that's why this middle school was recently one of five schools across the country to be honored by Education Trust for exceptional success in educating low-income students and students of color. The school's principal and a team of teachers received the national group's 2006 "Dispelling the Myth" award at a November ceremony featuring U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings.

Staff involvement

"Port Chester is an inspiring example of what can happen when everyone is on the same page, working for the good of the child," said NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi. "There are a variety of ways school districts are addressing the achievement gap, and this is a great example. The key in every instance is staff involvement."

In fact, it was most fitting that Port Chester Principal Carmen Macchia chose to bring a representative team of four teachers to the awards ceremony and present a workshop on how to transform secondary schools.

"None of this would have happened without the team approach," Macchia said.

Macchia, who became principal in 1992, said the school's poor performance on the statewide tests was a wake-up call about academic shortcomings. "First we had to bring in law and order," Macchia said. "Fighting and bullying were rampant." Teachers were more concerned with school safety than academics, he added, so school discipline improvements were made.

Teacher involvement was the key to change, Macchia said. "Once they were included in the educational reform, the teachers really rallied around the school improvement and were not afraid to try some very dramatic changes."

Those changes included scheduling alterations to create time for intensive help for students and for staff teams to meet every day. Team time is used to discuss individual students, meet with parents and plan interdisciplinary activities.

In addition, the school shifted to looping, where teachers, counselors and assistant principals develop closer ties to students by staying with the same students for consecutive school years.

"The looping saves so much time at the beginning of the second school year," said ELA teacher Linda O'Connor, president of the Port Chester TA. "You really get to know the kids and they know what you expect right from the beginning."

The district also wisely targeted money to reduce class size in ELA and math classes. O'Connor noted the district invested in intensive professional development, bringing in retired teacher Ellin Rossberg to redesign curriculum with test-taking skills and richer offerings. Every summer, teacher-led committees analyze data to determine what kinds of questions are tripping up kids and curriculum is adjusted accordingly.

The ELA model

Perhaps the most dramatic change has been infusing reading and writing into every subject.

"First we had to convince everyone that all the state assessments - math, science and social studies - were at least part reading tests," said ELA coordinator Michael DeVito, a member of the Port Chester TA. "Slowly, ELA has come to drive the school's entire curriculum with everyone becoming reading and writing teachers."

Teachers focus on 24 key skills such as "compare" and "contrast" and making inferences. Virtually everything is interdisciplinary: Social studies teachers are teaching writing as part of document-based question prep, using the same planning pages as ELA teachers.

Science teachers use Venn diagrams to teach classification skills, and require labs include a main idea and supporting details.

"Everyone's an ELA teacher," said social studies teacher Regina Shaw, who was part of the team that went to D.C. "We're all on the same page."

A recent assignment in Shaw's social studies class included a "character trait" chart for Yitzhak Rabin and Yasir Arafat, complete with boxes for supporting details.

Even the art class builds ELA skills. Walk into Ida Tino's art class (see cover photo) and you'll see students at computers researching information on the Whitney Museum of American Art's Web site. Before they ever get to pick up a paint brush, the students discuss the narrative art of Jacob Lawrence.

At first, it sounds more like a social studies class as they discuss the historical context for the artist's "Migration of the Negro" series. Then it becomes more like ELA, as Tino asks kids to compare and contrast Lawrence's work to other artists, think about why certain colors are repeated and brainstorm why his subjects lack facial expression.

"You said his colors are subtle," Tino says to a student, sneaking in a vocabulary lesson. "What does the word subtle mean?"

It's no surprise that when Tino displays student artwork around the hallways, there's generally an accompanying written paragraph explaining the painting. "It's an interdisciplinary approach to art education that works with all kinds of learning styles," Tino said. She's tackled powerful themes ranging from the Holocaust, to crossing the Mexican border, to protecting the biosphere.

NYSUT Vice President Maria Neira noted the staff has worked hard to build ties with parents, many of whom are immigrants working two or three jobs.

Instead of a back-to-school night, parent-teacher conferences are held three times a year, a rarity at many middle schools. To improve communication, the school just landed an IBM grant to translate e-mail to parents into Spanish.

Monthly parent nights with bilingual school counselor Elsie Del Pilar have proven popular. "We talk about everything - even how to read report cards," Del Pilar said. "I had one parent whose child told her F meant fabulous!"

- Sylvia Saunders